Demonstrators will hold a rally and prayer vigil in Greenville today to protest a decision by Vidant Health System to close Pungo Vidant Hospital in Belhaven.

The State Conference of the NAACP said it will join residents for the protest at 5 p.m. at the corner of Memorial Drive and Stantonsburg Road near Vidant's headquarters.

NAACP leader William J. Barber, Mayor Adam O'Neal of Belhaven and others will address issues raised by Vidant's decision to close facilities they say serve more than 25,000 people in Hyde and Beaufort Counties.

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Vidant and management could care less...it's a business and want to pad their pockets with bonuses.
Love how there will be an outpatient and helipad to Vidant. Duh, how many will die because of that since no ED (Emergency Department) to give immediate triage care....Just saying.

All of you who want it open,pay the damned bills. You act as if this is the first hospital to ever close.
And of course you have the usual low information crowd who want to blame the Governor or the Republican party. A bunch of ignorant indivivduals one and all.Face the facts it cost money to operate a hospital/business so try opening you wallets as wide as your mouths and Pungo will be just fine. Possibly run a budget surplus.
As for the dummies who say expanding medicaid would have avoided this, not only are you clueless to the financial situation at Pungo but you also have no idea where the money is suppose to come from to pay for medicaid expansion when the fed pulls its committment in three years.It will be put on the taxpayers of NC. Truth be told you really do not care as long as other people are paying the tax burden. It is amazing how ignorant and govt dependent so many have become.

Here's why... "The long-term political effects of a successful... health care bill will be even worse — much worse... It will revive the reputation of... Democrats as the generous protector of middle-class interests. And it will at the same time strike a punishing blow against Republican claims to defend the middle class..." - William Kristol memo, "Defeating President Clinton's Healthcare Proposal" 12/93.

From the Sacramento Bee (link below):
"Vidant CEO David Herman said the 60-year-old hospital's closing is triggered by the decision of North Carolina lawmakers to refuse federal funding to expand Medicaid"
"Gov. Pat McCrory signed a Republican-backed law in March denying health insurance to about 500,000 low-income people under Medicaid."
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/05/5710094/hospital-closing-after-nc-doesnt.html

The only reason the citizens learned of this was because someone leaked the information. If that had not happened then in a few months someone would have shown up for work to learn they had no job. An ambulance would have brought in a patient and find the ER closed. The only thing the powers that be care about is their wallet. They sure don't care about lives. I'm just waiting until someone dies, that probably would have lived if the ER was still open. Lawyers will have a ball with that. SO yeah, save money now. It's going to cost someone in the end.

Why should they take a loss when your own state government turned down the FREE MONEY from the expansion of Medicaid that would have kept the hospital afloat?
You're the one that doesn't care about lives. If you did you would be up at the state capital demanding that Medicaid be expanded using the FREE MONEY that would go along with the expansion.
You folks are just amazingly stooooopid. You screwed yourself and you're too dumb to even know it.
What a bunch of chumps.
You don't deserve a hospital or an ER.

Why should they take a loss when your own state government turned down the FREE MONEY from the expansion of Medicaid that would have kept the hospital afloat?
You're the one that doesn't care about lives. If you did you would be up at the state capital demanding that Medicaid be expanded using the FREE MONEY that would go along with the expansion.
You folks are just amazingly stooooopid. You screwed yourself and you're too dumb to even know it.
What a bunch of chumps.
You don't deserve a hospital or an ER.

Dave, what is "free money" and where can we all get some? It is this type of thought process that is destroying this country tax dollar by tax dollar. And you call others stoooooopid.

What a bunch of suckers and chumps. You lost your hospital because of the lies from your Republicans and you're too stoooopid to even realize it.
I've seen comments blaming the company that owns the hospital. Bwaaaahaha!
Hey all you Free Market saps - here it is! A little free market right in your face. It's their money and they don't owe you a thing.
You screwed yourself over and you're too much of a sucker to even realize it - BWAAAAHAHAHA!

My Grandmother worked at Pungo for years. And I worked for medical facilities in Eastern NC (under the UHS umbrella) on and off (on various contracting assignments) for over ten years - until I was brutally thrown out on the highway last year (only six weeks after having surgery at one of David Herman's hospitals) for daring to question the way Vidant/Greenville management was treating/using/abusing me (covering up to 6 weeks of 24/7 hospital call at a time - while a new Vidant hire took more paid-time-off than she worked). I met the guy who did the throwing ONE TIME - in the hall - in passing. After four years of keeping the doors at RCH/Ahoskie open for kids, I wasn't worth driving up to talk to. Let's just say, I was under-whelmed by the compassion "the Vidant family" showed to someone who had only served them/the children of an "under-served" community faithfully and well - stepping up when others walked away (not that I blame them one bit - given how they were treated). It would be nice if the Federal agencies I reported it all to would step up and POLICE what happened. But I'll not be holding my breath.
The biggest problem with healthcare management right now is the MANAGEMENT - not the Republicans in Raleigh (who realize the state is broke and we must change our ways) - not the doctors and nurses on the front lines who are generally holding some of these sinking ships together with spit and bailing wire. On the Democrats' watch, the coffers of Medicaid were mismanaged and plundered for YEARS - by people just like David Herman. Literally billions were lost to the "disproportionate share" program. It barely got two days of headlines.
No one wants to know the truth.
These hospital big-shots (salivating over all the lovely Federal money they could once again plunder) all told us that things would get better with Obamacare. I guess, like so many of our law-makers, they didn't know what the law actually said (because they didn't read the fine print) - or that states could opt out - try to find another way.
It sickens me when this Mayo-Clinic wannabe looks earnestly into the camera and makes his sad/sorry excuses for destroying people's lives. Maybe what we need are new managers who understand the history of the institution they are leading, and are not so consumed with molding it into a monument to themselves.

Republican lawbreakers refused Federal money that would have kept this hospital open.

Remain clueless, if you had the ability to think you would be dangerous. You act as if federal money does not come from local taxpayers. When the fed pulls its committment to medicaid expansion in 3 yrs, who then pays for the expanded service? Let me guess in your case ,other people.

Nancy Regan changed her mind about Stem Cell research when it became a reality that perhaps a cure for her husbands disease may have been found within the policies her and her husband opposed. Politics can turnout to be very personel. If you were to die within an ambulance because the hospital nearest to you was futher away than necessary due to funding, perhaps "you" would have a less self centered view of participating in what's in the best interest of the commom good. Your assumption or "guess" to be able to know what's in the minds of others is very unfortunate and quite self serving. Notably, if NC does not accept the Federal Medicaid money, it does not otherwise, not get spent. It is just goes elsewhere. Therefore, we should not be OK that the Federal tax dollars we send to Washington do not come back to NC and help people within our state due to a refusal by a political party with an idelogical adgenda that defies common sense.

The true villain in all this is Lying Pat and the NCGA. landman1 nailed it perfectly. That area is largely populated by the poor and less fortunate. Many of which receive medicaid. Who just cut medicaid to more than 500000 people in NC? Your newly elected leaders in Rawlee. Vidant has to what is prudent to remain viable for ALL of Eastern NC, not just one community. Look at the bigger picture. LIke it or not, healthcare is a business. This move made sense.

First to address the comments by salemite. He/she must be an executive in Vidant. I expect to see a denial of this but I won't believe it. Why should I given its just one lie after another from them. When they took over so many satellite hospitals they were not looking for the good of the area but were wanting to eliminate the competition. Many of us think it was their plan all along to close Pungo and build a clinic. The community residents served by Pungo now must drive out of the area to have most of the testing and hospitalizations. Convenient for Vidant but not for the community. The people of Washington (Beaufort Regional Health System)were also led like sheep when another company wanted to buy/manage them. A hush campaign by Vidant was raised to put the community against this so they can "keep it managed by a hospital in the area". Attention Beaufort watch your back. My advice to all is to continue to be aware of Vidant and its business lies. Vidant has caused problems in the community before and will again. They just wait for the dust to settle before pulling another "fast one" because the executives know people will forget. Money and not healthcare delivery is what drives Vidant. God help us all.

because Vidant doesn't care about local healthcare even though they preach it. So sad $$$ become the calling card and not care. Vidant has become a big business and care nothing about healthcare and community.

Not true. Vidant does care about the health of the citizens of eastern NC. If they hadn't taken over the hospital, it would probably be closed already, with nothing to replace it. As it is, they are investing over $4 million into a new clinic that will provide all the services that the hospital did, except for inpatient services.
I understand that residents are upset about the change, but there are just not enough patients in the area for a hospital that size to ever break even, and you can't just keep losing money forever.

as that is not a big hospital either, but they built it and wanted to suck patients/money from Virigina hospital Sentara. Think about that one my friend, and yep has to be an exec with Vidant for such comments.

Pungo Hospital has survived and served the area since 1947. Vidant takes over and shuts the door in less that 18 months. The folks that say it's a good thing obviously are over looking the fact that, by their own admission, Vidant says that they will eliminate 90- 100 jobs. That will cripple the entire area. All the excuses given by Vidant were known to exist before they bought Pungo. It was a 60 year old facility then and it also had a river running beside it as well.
How obscene it must be to be an executive at Vidant and receive seven figure bonuses and payouts all the while they fire 100 people and take away from an entire area, largely populated by the poor and unfortunate folks, the same health care that they enjoy in their country club neighborhoods. Just one million dollar bonus check would fund 20 $50k jobs a year. OBSCENE. Everything else pales in comparison to that. They have taken away the security of a hospital that serves an area with over 20,000 folks just for greed. Nothing else matters.